Part of communicating effectively is presenting your information in a logical way. Scientists in many disciplines have accepted the following format as standard. Unless I give you specific instructions otherwise, I will expect your reports to be in this form whether you are describing a quick lab exercise or submitting the final report of your two-semester independent study. Of course, the length of each report will depend on the project, but the content and organization should be the same.

The content should be the same for reports that are not in the form of written manuscripts. For instance, you may be presenting your work in an oral report, PowerPoint presentation, or as a poster. There are additional guidelines to follow for each of these media. Jeff Radel at the University of Kansas Medical Center offers many links and detailed tutorials on making effective presentations, considering talks, posters, and visual aids. Because posters are becoming so popular at scientific meetings, there are several web sites (example) that will help you make one; just Google "poster presentations."

Consult the following checklist as you are planning and writing your report and again before you submit it. Special sections follow which describe making useful tables and figures and how to cite and list bibliographic references. Finally, there is a section on additional guides to scientific writing. Following my own suggestions, there is a references cited section suggesting useful sources I mention here. I probably will evaluate your paper using my standard grading form or some modification of it.

CONTENTS   Organize your report into the following separate sections and present them in this order with headings.

_____ Introduction: setting up the question you asked by describing its relevance, how others have asked (or failed to ask) the question previously, why now is a good time to ask (again), and why it is worthy of your attention. In more extensive projects, the introduction will amount to a concise review of pertinent primary literature; yes, that means library work and several journal references. Your introduction might best end with a very explicit statement of your specific objectives and hypotheses.

_____ Methods: what you did to answer your question and how you did it. Describe your field site(s), experimental design (treatments, controls, replications, etc.), techniques (especially those you developed yourself), equipment used, etc.

_____ Results: what you discovered. Present your results in clear efficient ways, probably using tables and figures. If you have had BIOL 226 or a similar course, proper statistical analysis is expected.

_____ Discussion: what your observations mean. Here you discuss the implications of your results, including: how they confirm or reject your hypotheses and answer your question; how and why the outcome is different from what you expected; how your data compare to those of other studies; a critique of your approach and methods; suggestion of logical next steps for further research. This section is by far the most important one in your paper and should get the greatest share of your effort and insights.

_____ Conclusion: concise answers to your initial questions, fate of your hypotheses, recommendations, etc.

SEQUENCE OF PARTS  

_____ Title page: informative, concise title of project, your name, course, date. (Usually required only for big projects.)

_____ Abstract: a single page, with your title and name at the top. (Usually required only for big projects.)

_____ Table of contents: if your reader will benefit by having a guide to distinct sections of text, references, figures, tables, and appendices. (Usually required only for big projects.)

_____ Text

_____ Tables: numbered consecutively, with captions, each cited in your text.

_____ Figures: numbered consecutively, with captions, each cited in your text.

_____ References: complete bibliographic citations of each and every source of information to which you refer in your paper.

_____ Appendices: for materials such as maps, questionnaires, large data tables, regulations, etc. that you specifically refer to or that your reader might want to examine but that would interrupt your argument if included in the text itself.

STYLE

_____ Line spacing: All text double spaced (3 lines per inch).

_____ Font: 12 points high in an easy-to-read typeface such as Courier or Times.

_____ Margins: Ample but not excessive, about an inch all around.

_____ Page numbering: All pages numbered consecutively (and corresponding to table of contents, if there is one).

_____ Binding: Pages stapled in upper left corner; use the big stapler in the Biology office if necessary. (Rarely are covers or folders necessary or desirable.)

_____ Appearance: Neat, consistent style of headings, indentations, figures, tables, references, appendices, etc.

_____ Spelling: No typographical errors; use your spelling checker.

_____ Writing: No grammatical errors; have the Writing Center critique your penultimate draft.

The points that you want to make in your report are efficiently and effectively substantiated by using two kinds of visual aids, tables and figures. Tables are highly structured arrays of information organized into rows and columns. While tables are usually used to convey numerical information, they can also be used to systematically present brief passages of text. Figures contain other, non-tabular, material such as graphs, photos, drawings, maps, etc. [Apology: I refer below to several examples of tables and figures to enhance this section, but, so far, I have not had time to convert them from paper to electronic form. Come see me if you want to look at them.]

All tables and figures are numbered sequentially in their own series (i.e. Figure 1, Figure 2, ... and Table 1, Table 2, ...). Numbers are assigned in the order in which you refer to them in your text. The number and a brief caption explaining its contents appear with each table or figure. The caption is at least an expanded title of the table or figure. It may also contain special explanation or clarification of the information presented, elaboration of key points depicted, and the source of your information. Number and caption are always placed at the top of a table, but generally below a figure. However, since most computer graphics packages allow you to easily include a title and subtitle above your graph, you may choose to put your captions above a graph or drawing as long as the caption contains all necessary information and you consistently use this format.

Put one table or figure on a page with its caption but no other text. For very large tables, reduce the font size (but be kind to your professor's failing eyesight) and/or put the table sideways on the page with the top closest to the binding edge of the page. An advantage to making large tables and figures is that you can photocopy them onto acetate transparencies for use in oral presentations of your work.

Each table or figure does not stand alone in making a point in your paper. You must refer in your text to each of them to describe their important messages. Do this by making a statement about your results and then citing a table or figure which corroborates that statement: "Females were far superior to males with respect to ... (Table 19)" and "Growth rate was strongly correlated to ambient temperature (Figure 5)." Your table or figure may be sufficiently complex and important that you will want to use several sentences to explain its messages. Otherwise, be as concise as possible in referring to your tables and figures: avoid references such as "Table 3 shows data collected on ..." or "A graph of ... is presented in Figure 6" because such sentences probably just waste space repeating the caption of the respective table or figure without adding any new information.

TABLES

Tables are most useful to you in either of two ways for presenting large amounts of information in a relatively small space. First, if you want to report actual numeric data to your readers, you will find tables a neat and easy way to do it (Table 1). No one likes reading a sentence with lots of numbers, and few people understand textual lists of numbers without several readings. Late on the night before grades are due, at least one professor I know of summarily skips torturous sentences that just list numeric results, convinced they are the writer's trick to obfuscate faulty data.

Numeric tables should be designed to emphasize differences in various measured parameters (often dependent variables) among observations categorized by values of other parameters (often independent variables). Usually the main categorizing variable is in the leftmost column, and the values of various measures within each category are placed in adjacent columns to the right. Each column should have its own heading; some columns may be grouped under superheadings. Likewise, groups of rows of the table may be placed under supercategories, and there may be subcategories or summary rows as well. Tables that include all of these options may start to appear cluttered, but they are still readable if properly prepared and generously spaced. Tables 1 and 2 have different formats, but both are effective; choose a style that works for you and be consistent with it within a report.

The second way you may use tables effectively is in concisely summarizing comparative information (Table 3). Tables for this purpose often contain much text and perhaps no numbers. Their very structure helps your reader organize the information you are presenting.

Tables should not include columns that contain only a single value. If several rows contain the same value in a column (as in Table 4), the table might be more efficiently organized by using the values of that column as supercategories. In a table, use "0" (zero) only when the measured value of a datum is zero; use "--" to indicate a missing datum. Make sure the units associated with all measurements are given in the table, preferably in the column headings, but in footnotes if they are long or require explanation (Table 2). Defining units in column headings, of course, requires that units be consistent within columns, and that is one of your goals because tables organized this way are usually much easier to read. However, occasionally you will design a table where your objective is exactly to show that a long list of different characteristics (rows) vary among a few categories (columns), as exemplified in Table 3.

Use horizontal lines to separate headings, subheadings, and various groups in the table. In spite of the fact that your word processor can put all sorts of fancy doodads in your tables, resist the temptation. Add no more horizontal lines than necessary for clarification. Vertical lines are hardly ever needed except perhaps when you have several lines of text in each category and not much space between columns. Avoid shading, heavy borders, etc.

Various style manuals (e.g. University of Chicago Press 1982, CBE 1983, and Turabian 1897) have much to say about designing tables.

FIGURES

Of the many types of figures that might be part of your report, only graphs will be covered here. There are several kinds of graphs. Scatter graphs (Figure 1) are used to show the relationship between values of one variable with those of one or more other variables; points may or may not be connected by lines (compare Figures 1 and 2). Bar graphs display values of a single variable measured in different but comparable situations (Figure 3). Pie graphs are useful to depict relative magnitudes of parts of a whole (Figure 4). Graphs are usually much easier and quicker to interpret and understand than tables, but tables present numeric data much more precisely than do graphs (compare Table 4 and Figure 4). Choose the better method for showing any particular set of data based on your specific objectives; almost never would you present the same information in both a table and a graph.

Most commonly in graphs, data are plotted against two perpendicular axes, the horizontal abscissa depicting values of the independent variable and the vertical ordinate(s) showing values of the dependent variables (Figure 5). If you plot multiple lines or bars, use various symbols and shading patterns to differentiate variables, and provide annotations or a legend to identify the symbols or patterns.

Modify the usual scatter or line plot to suit your needs. You can draw a regression line through the actual data (Figure 6; cf. Figure 1). Your axes need not start at zero and can extend in positive or negative directions or both (Figure 7). Bar graphs can also be varied to emphasize your point. Hanging bar graphs (Figure 8) nicely depict the difference between positive and negative values. Multiple categories can be compared if their bars are plotted adjacent to each other (Figure 9). Multiple categories can be combined to emphasize differences between totals in stacked bar graphs (Figure 10). Multiple comparisons can be made even more effectively in still another way (Figure 11). Finally, you can mix graphs of different types in the same figure (e.g. Figure 12), but these often get messy and are usually difficult to draw. Scales on the ordinate can be varied to emphasize your point. For example, Figure 13 uses a logarithmic scale to show a broad range of values while retaining some detail for comparing bars of lesser magnitude. Use of log scales, however, may hide drastic changes in values (Figure 14).

There are many additional possibilities for graphical presentation of data, and you should consult Schmid and Schmid (1979) and Tufte (1983) in Herrick Library for details.

No matter how creative you are, you no doubt have relied on ideas, methods, and data that are not your own. When you describe, modify, criticize, compare, or otherwise use the contributions of others, you are academically and ethically obliged to give credit by citing your sources of information. You must provide all bibliographic data necessary for your reader to easily find and consult the sources you used. What follows are examples of bibliographic references in a style that resembles many of those used in natural and social sciences. You may use this generic style or use the particular style accepted by researchers in the discipline in which you are working.

RULES

The only inviolable rules for citing the work of others are:

1. Be complete: provide all information necessary for someone to easily find the exact passage or publication to which you refer.
2. Be concise: use as few words and punctuation marks as possible without sacrificing clarity or exactness.
3. Be consistent: put similar sorts of references (e.g. books, articles, personal contacts, etc.) in exactly the same form every time you mention one of them.
4. Be careful: double check your citations for accuracy because errors are at best irritating to your professor and at worst suggestive of "creative referencing."

CITATIONS IN TEXT

In the text of your report, mention the work of others in the following ways. "Smith (1992:321) discovered that ...." The method of Black and White (1983, 1985, 1990) was used to determine ...." "The work of other investigators confirms my results (Brown 1983, Gray and Green 1985a, 1985b, 1987, Alfred et al. 1991)." Note in these examples that footnotes are not used. Instead, the authors' last names and year are mentioned and correspond to citations listed near the end of your report. In the text, cite both last names if there are two authors but only the first if there are three or more authors; in the reference section at the back, always provide the names of all the authors. Multiple citations are listed chronologically by publication date. If the same author publishes more than one work in a year, add letters to the year in the citation and the reference to distinguish them. Include page numbers (following a colon after the date) to refer to a specific passage or section in a book; short articles or individually cited chapters in a book usually do not need page numbers.

REFERENCE SECTION

Complete bibliographic information for each and every citation in the text is provided in the section called "References Cited." Include only works that you actually mention; this is not a general reading list but a catalog of material you have personally consulted. Suggested formats for describing various printed and internet sources follow; explanations in brackets [ ] are not part of the references.

Articles in research periodicals

Black, A.B., White, X.Y. 1983 The title of the article goes here, often not capitalized. Name of Journal, 23:1305-1320.

Whole books

Smith, G.H. 1992 Title of Book Goes Here (Usually Capitalizing Every Major Word), 3rd ed. Name of Publisher, City, State or Country.

Chapters by different authors in edited books

Alfred, K., Cornell, E., Stanford, L., Hobart, W.S., Wells, H.G. 1991 Name of chapter goes here. Pages 123-145 in M. Miller, editor, Title of Book. Name of Publisher, City, State or Country.

Gray, H.J., Green, L.K. 1985a Title of presentation whose written version is being cited. Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference on Esoteric Knowledge, University of Wisconsin, Madison, June 18-20, 1984.

Technical reports

Gray, H.J., Green, L.K. 1985b Title of Report Goes Here. Report 85/120-34-567A, Pollution Prevention Section, Water Quality Branch, USEPA, Kansas City, MO.

Brown, A.D. January 13, 1993. Personal communication. Professor of Medicine, University of Mississippi.
 
Smith, S. March 2, 1993. Personal communication. Health Department, Xyz County, New York.

Internet sources
 
While accessibility to useful scientific information on the web increases rapidly, it is still true that anyone can say anything on the internet. You must always consider the credibility of your electronic sources. And, as with printed materials, your reference to web sites must be accurate and up-to-date so that your reader can follow up if necessary. Several web sites provide suggestions for citation of internet sources; my favorite is that of William Patterson University's library because it give easy-to-follow models for common sources.

Ambrose and Ambrose (1987): not so much on writing as on experimental design and how to determine which statistical tests to use; easy explanations

CBE Style Manual Committee (1983): the "style bible" for biologists

Pechenik (1993): very useful; easy to understand

Tufte (1983) and Schmid and Schmid (1979): two good sources on how to design figures for maximum impact

Turabian (1987) and University of Chicago Press (1982): the two "standard" references on general style of research papers

Wilkinson (1991): a new comprehensive source of everything you could possible want to know about research reports in the natural sciences

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